Chef Kunal Kapur tells Divya Kaushik that complicated procedures and tough-to-find ingredients do not make a good dish — simple is better. He has listed some easy recipes in his recent book, A Chef In Every Home
Unlike other cooking demonstrations, mostly thronged by women, this one had some toddlers too. While one crooned a background score, the other one took his seat on an upturned metal vessel on the cooking platform and when necessary, pointed to his father that he should continue to stir the dish. His father, chef Kunal Kapur, is used to his son giving him company in his kitchen. “It is like a family tradition now, when adults cook kids often observe them in the kitchen. My journey with food began in our roaring kitchen. Every Sunday, men of the family would take charge of the kitchen and my father would make me sit on an upturned empty oil canister placed on top of our kitchen counter. I was the chief stirrer of the family and the advantage of being the chief stirrer was that when I went to hotel management school I was deemed the most knowledgeable guy in the class. Since I watched my father cook, I recognised ingredients very well and would never let my teacher down. But it was disclosed later how dumb I was at cooking,” said chef Kunal, while he was giving live demos of some recipes listed in his first book, A Chef in Every Home.
The chef, who became popular after his television stint as one of the judges of MasterChef India on Star Plus, said that the reason to come up with a book was to share his experiences. “Real learning happens only when you are in the kitchen, doing the job. I have learnt a lot from some genius chefs with whom I had an opportunity to work with. Chef Arvind Saraswat, chef Arun Tyagi and chef Nita Nagraj are masters in their fields and when I think of them I realise that I have such a long way to go still. I remember working with chef Saraswat as an intern. Once I thought I will get some brownie point if I will prepare the dishes well on time and will present it to him before the rest. I did my best job and took the broth to him. As soon as he saw that he screamed at me and almost threw the dish on my face. I was shocked, almost in tears and told myself that being a guy I should not cry. I just could not figure out what did I do to get such a reaction. Then sous chef came and put his arm around me and told me that I did a brilliant job but forgot to serve the broth with the spoon. That gave me a lesson that a chef’s job doesn’t end after cooking, till the time the dish reaches a table and guests assure him that they got what they wanted, his job is not done,” he shared.
The book is divided into sections like snacky starters, the essential condiments and dips, salads and soups, heavy main courses, breads and rice. The good thing about it is that it doesn’t limit itself to dishes from a particular cuisine. “The criteria has been to select the commonly cooked dishes and present simple ways to present them at home. It was at the auditions of MasterChef India, when I saw thousands of home cooks lined up with amazing home cooked food, that made me realise that good food can come from anyone. After being part of four seasons of the show, travelling across the country, hunting for talent, seeking out good food, I stumbled on a fact that there is a chef in every home. I chose to do a recipe book initially because keeping my schedule in mind this was the easiest I could have managed. Also I wanted to tell others that a good dish need not have complicated recipe or tough-to-find, exotic ingredients,” said Kunal.
Since he has donned an author’s cap, expect some more writings from his table. “I would love to write a book on Indian cuisine after doing an extensive research. I feel that there is so much still to explore and present to the world. North East is the most untouched and I would love to discover the cuisine of the place and present the rare gems,” he ended.